Aramaic in the New Testament (Part 8) Why does Jesus say "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"?

Why did Jesus say "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why do Matthew and Mark quit Jesus's words on the cross "Eli Eli lama sabachtani" / "Eloi Eloi lama sabachtani" in Aramaic? In this video, I discuss the phrase and look at both the Aramaic behind the name as well as this section from the books of Matthew and Mark in Syriac (Aramaic) to see if there is any further insights behind the Aramaic forms.
Aramaic is used in numerous places in every translation of the New Testament. In this series, I go over the different Aramaic words and phrases in the New Testament and offer some commentary on their use as well as their importance.
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[@dushyanthihoole3340]

Beautiful. Our Lord said things like this

[@nicoleahickman]

Backstory to me finding this video: I was reading Ephesians and I had a revelation around the crucifixion of Christ and the fact he had to descend to the depths before ascending - it brought to life the words of Christ ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me’ and I wished to understand the Aramaic as I knew this was the language of Christ. The fact that the translation still references the Aramaic made me realise it was so important and special. My mind has been totally blown! This is incredible and thank you so much for sharing - so blessed and overwhelmed by your teaching 🙏🏻

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

That makes me really happy to hear! Pray for me.

[@Sanharib]

Assyrians from the village of Hessana in Hakkari (Turkey) still say "Lema" (why). It's an old village, which was called "Esama" in Akkadian, written -> URU.E-SA-A-MA. The Hesnaye tribe is the only tribe I know of which says "lema or lemu". We say Qamu

[@HacolHavel]

Thank you very much sir. It was amazing as always. What was interesting for me is transliteration of the word "למה" in Vulgate translation as "lamma" which is puzzling for me. I wonder if you can explain the reason.

[@stevenv6463]

Good to see another video, professor. Why wouldn't Galilean Aramaic be western? I have heard before that Jesus would have spoken eastern Aramaic. If that is the case, who spoke western Aramaic? I have also always wondered why the verb's guttural k sound (ق) sabaQtani is represented by the Greek letter X (the ch in Christ). I would think kappa would represent it fine.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

I think that's a question about classification. The dialect of Syriac Aramaic that was spoken to the west of the Euphrates river sees a shift from ā to ō, whereas to the east ā either remains the same or shifts to short a (today's accent has effectively all shifted to short a). Some classify Western Aramaic a little differently, and would include dialects like Ma'aloula's. Many Jewish dialects of Aramaic are eastern, and it makes sense given their use of the language in the exile being the Iraqi or Mesopotamian Aramaic.

[@minasoliman]

I guess I’m a nerd! 🎉

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

My guy!

[@katathoombz]

I knew this of me already but now I can say I have a Doctor's word on it!

[@crisa.2741]

First of all good job creating resources linking Syriac to Akkadian, Ethiopic and more! There's a lot to yet be discovered. At 14:57 you mentioned that the Dead Sea Scrolls are not helping us with verse 16. While it's true that Cave 4 does not help, there's still the 5/6HevPs scroll found at Nahal Hever which has כארו thus confirming "they have pierced". Though the ink seems to be fading the word can still be seen on the official Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library for Plate 891 Frag. 6 (B-366234 for normal and B-366235 for infrared). It's on the left side almost at the end of the third row. It's also confirmed by the transcriptions. So we can say that the DSS do confirm "they have pierced" as per the LXX and we can currently assume that the Waw was later taken as a Yod by the Masoretes to become "as a lion" many centuries later until further evidence showing otherwise.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

Nice!

[@NIMRODWARDA]

You should look into semitic polysemy. That could be at play in Psalm 22 for lion/pierced, as there are numerous examples found in the New Testament Peshitta (e.g. Matthew 11:19 - children/works, 1 Corinthians 13:3 - burn/boast, Romans 8:24 - hope/wait, and Philippians 1:8 - bowels/love) that help explain different renderings in the Byzantine and Alexandrian Greek texts.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

That's a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@petarjovanovic1481]

I have a question, what would be the original pronunciation of the qamatc gadol, "o" or "a"? In Modern Hebrew, the reversal from "o" to "a" is noticeable. Like in the word צָהֳרַיִם - noon. The academy for Hebrew language insists on using the spelling צוֹהֳריים - tcOharayim which preserves that "o" sound after צ but everybody just says צָהֳרַיִם "tcAharayim" with "a" sound.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

It really is an interesting question. I have not studied it in depth, but I'd lean toward it originally being a long ā articulated as an ɔ. Vowels made at the back of the throat tend to drift, so it's easy to see how it can be an "a" sound as much as an "o" sound. So the original pronunciation really might be asking what the Masoretes knew by their qameS qadol. Franz Rosenthal in his Biblical Aramaic grammar says it was originally an "o", so maybe that's the case since the Masoretic pointing emerged at a time when both spoken Western-accented Syriac and Arabic would have been prevalent in the region.

[@petarjovanovic1481]

@@ProfessorMichaelWingert Thanks.

[@tsigeasfaha9942]

The only quote I ended up memorising, just by chance was: "Elohi Elohi limaza sebeQtani" and I used to think it wasHebrew. Just curious why it does't sound the same with yours, professor?

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

Are you asking why the version you memorized has limaza instead of l-mah or l-mānā? If so, maybe that is reflecting an Arabic "limadha" for "why". I'm not sure. Could you say more about how you memorized it or from what translation it is? I didn't see that version in the Ge'ez book of Mark.

[@tsigeasfaha9942]

Thank you for responding. One thing I confidentely remember when I heard it repeated as a quote by an Abyssinian Catholic priest was exactly the way I translated it. And I ended up memorising it as a child passionately. To quoted it in my mother tongue version, Tigrigna: ኤሎሂ ኤሎሂ፡ ሊማዛ ሰበቕታኒ? So, I noticed two clear differences: first: illi illi versus elohi elohi, with a pronounced h sound. Second: lama versus limaza, clearly different sounds. That left me wondering if there are more than one sources of the quote.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

@@tsigeasfaha9942 eeli eeli is in Matthew, elohi elohi is in Mark. To me, ሊማዛ sounds Arabic. Do you say it in spoken Tigrinya as well?

[@tsigeasfaha9942]

No, I did know "limaza" was Arabic word for "why". But later, in my 20s I learned Arabic, just enough to communicate with.

[@katathoombz]

Xiaoma! He sounds convincing in the short.

[@ProfessorMichaelWingert]

@xiaomanyc certainly makes language learning a lot of fun!

[@davidlagos3217]

Are we for certain that he said why have you forsaken me?.. And if we are certain he said that Why the ones that are there the firsthand witnesses say he calleth for Elijah Come on Surely God and Elijah are two different personages.. or could it be he said something to the term but not God forsook me.. did not Jesus say I am the father are one.. did not Christ.. say no one Plex out of my hand those that belong to me.. could this passage be like the eye of the needle Passage where Aramaic words are not interpret right by Greek Scholars.

[@khosbyshezi6274]

The Psalm verse is not the same as what Yahusha said

[@danielkakish]

Yahusha? It’s ישוע aka ܝܫܘܥ

[@khosbyshezi6274]

@@danielkakish Yashua means may his name be remembered not The actual name is Yahusha. The combination of Yahuah and Husha. Together those names mean Yahuah is Salvation

[@NIMRODWARDA]

​@@khosbyshezi6274 I believe you are mistaken. As an Assyrian with a family that comes from Iraq as native speaks of Aramaic (Syriac), I actually decided to name my son ܥܒܕܝܫܘܥ after having studied the etymology of the name. My suggestion would be that you further study semitic languages to get a better grasp of the roots of specific words and names. Similarly, transliteration of semitic words using Latin letters does not always do Aramaic (or Hebrew) justice, given the wide variety of dialects in relatively small geographic areas (such as in the case of northern Iraq) Moreover, one must understand the intricacies of the way these languages are vocalized versus written, and how they have evolved over time.

[@shawnravi4683]

Please refer to my comment wrongly made in the next Maran atha section. Shawn

[@khosbyshezi6274]

He spoke a language no one understood. Even though he spoke to them many times but didn't understand this phrase. True reason is He(Yahusha) spoke Bantu Language Eli meaning This and Sabakthani meaning Sabbath keepers.

[@danielkakish]

🤣🤣🤣